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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CHARTER 2019-08-08 (2018-2020)Hawaii County Charter Commission 14th Session Council Chambers, Hawai`i County Building 25 Aupuni Street, Ste. 1401 Hilo, Hawai`i August 8, 2019 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission was called to ORDER: order at 11:06 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Douglass Shipman Adams, Chair Mr. William Carthage Bergin, Commissioner Mr. Paul K. Hamano, Commissioner Mr. Kevin D. Hopkins, Commissioner (left at 12:52 p.m.) Ms. Sarah H. Rice, Commissioner Mr. Christopher John Imiloa Roehrig, Commissioner Ms. Marcia A. K. Saquing, Commissioner Ms. Donna Mae Springer, Commissioner Ms. Bobby Jean Leithead Todd, Commissioner Absent: Ms. Jennifer Zelko-Schlueter, Vice Chair Ms. Michelle Galimba, Commissioner Also Present: Mr. J Yoshimoto, Commission Attorney Mr. Jon Henricks, Commission Analyst Ms. Shannon Magnuson, Commission Secretary Mr. Scott Ruedy, Dep. Executive Assistant to Council Chair (Kona Courtesy Site) CHR. ADAMS: Welcome to the 14th session of the Hawai`i County Charter Commission. It's 11:06 on the 8th of August, 2019. I would ask everyone to please silence their comms devices, and I will call this meeting to order. Mr. Henricks if you could please call the roll. MR. HENRICKS: Mr. Bergin (here), Ms. Galimba, Mr. Hamano (here), Mr. Hopkins (here), Ms. Leithead-Todd (present), Ms. Rice (here), Mr. Roehrig (here), Ms. Saquing (here), Ms. Springer (here), Ms. Zelko-Schlueter, Chair Adams (here). Chair Adams you have nine members in attendance at this time. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. At this time we would... so that would mean that Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter are excused. Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: TONI WITHINGTON: The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. CHR. ADAMS: At this time we will take statements from the public. I would remind our testifiers to please provide their names, there's not that many agenda items that we are going to be talking about so, there is a three minute limit associated with that, but without objection, I will allow Commissioners should they so choose, to ask any questions of our testifiers at this particular meeting, not in a non... this does not mean we do this for all meetings. But we will do it for this meeting. Okay. So, I understand that we have at least three potentially four testifiers here in Hilo. . MR. RUEDY: We currently have two testifiers in Kona and we have two in observance, Maile David and Karen Eoff. CHR. ADAMS: Great. Thank you to the Council Members for being in attendance as well, in observance. So let's start with our Kona testifiers. MR. RUEDY: Okay our first testifier today is Toni Withington in support of Communication No. 35.51, to be followed by Susan Dursin in support of Communication 35.51. State your name for the record. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you and I would ask our testifiers in Kona if you could please speak up, we are having a little difficulty hearing you in Hilo. Communication No. 35.51 in support. MS. WITHINGTON: Good morning Commissioners. I hope you can hear me. My name is... CHR. ADAMS: It's... yeah, maybe move the microphone a little closer to you. MS. WITHINGTON: How's that? CHR. ADAMS: It's a little better. MS. WITHINGTON: Thank you. Good morning Commissioners. My name is Toni Withington. I am representing Kohala Lihikai, Kamakani 0 Kohala Ohana, Malama Na Wahi Pana 0 Kohala, Maika`i Kamakani 0 Kohala, and Malama Kohala Kahakai. These are the groups in North Kohala that have been purchasing open space land for many years now and we are currently stewarding seven projects in North Kohala open space along the coastline, two of these we are doing with the maintenance funds. We are in favor of Communication No. 35.51. I am not going to go into the particulars of it because we have talked about it with you before. We think that this amendment is very important. What I want to Page 2 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 spend my three minutes talking to you about is the scope of what we are talking about with open space because all of the details we tend to get lost in the real idea of what we are doing. The open space fund was created not by the County Council or the County Administration, it was created by 36 percent of the voters of this island, three times. The people that are up on Mauna Kea right now, their outcry is for their disassociation with the government in preserving places that they believe are special. The open space fund was created by the County to preserve places that are special to the people who live here and the system that we have for doing it is excellent. It just needs some improvements and that is why you are being asked as a County Commission, ah, Charter Commission, to look at how we can make it better. And what I can say to you is how we can make it better is to have better communications and better participation by the County in the maintenance fund process. It is not working now. The Administration is not dedicated to really putting the open space and preservation of our special places as an important part of what they do. I would hope that by shifting the maintenance fund to Finance Department, the emphasis on needing to take care of these places will be enhanced. For example, some of the applications for maintenance fund are so precise that the various business plans that have to be submitted for each one, spell out exactly what needs to be done. There is no reason why the members of the boards of the people that are... the non-profit applying for it, cannot receive any numeration when they are working specifically on a project. There is also no reason why the County cannot look at the applications for uses that are needed for maintenance and telling the non -profits perhaps the County employees can do part of this, maybe not, but at least the idea of what needs to be done on these open space lands are ideas that are created by the communities themselves. North Kohala has had more than its share of open space funding and it is only because our kupuna recognized that with the passing of agriculture in our... the importance of agriculture in our County, that we were going to need to do something to protect our important and special places from development because the pressure will be on. Our kupuna told us that we are the generation that needs to make the effort to identify what is important in our community and take efforts to preserve them. I think our community has done very well at that and we continue to do it. We just hope that you can improve the maintenance fund system by supporting the recommendations advanced to you by the County Council. Thank you very much. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Uh, Susan. Page 3 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 SUSAN DURSIN: Communication No. 35.51 in support. MS. DURSIN: I am Susan Dursin and I am testifying for myself today as I have many times in the past, you are well aware, and I think you probably have my written testimony that I sent in yesterday morning. In any case, I would just want to say that I felt before the whole parliamentary snafu, that the commission was tending toward approval of the part of CA -18 which would enable compensation, and I hope now that you will feel with the Council having so strongly approved of the measure, that other eyes have looked at it and seen that it really is a very important step and so I would urge you to vote in favor of these changes. Thanks so much. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Moving into... moving here to Hilo, I would ask Mr. Sensenig please to come and then also Ms. Hecht to come to the table as well. Sir. DOUG SENSENIG: Communication No. 35.51, commenting. MR. SENSENIG: Thank you very much. Aloha and thank you for your truly impressive service on the Charter Commission. I am here to discuss the proposed change to the language of CA -18. I am Doug Sensenig and I represent Moku 0 Keawe Land Conservancy, a new land trust dedicated entirely to land protection and stewardship on the island of Hawai`i. We have a diverse board made up of people experienced in conservation and excited to partner with the County to help protect and steward land across the island for the benefit of present and future generations. I am here to add Moku 0 Keawe Land Conservancy's voice to those... excuse me, to those asking you to honor the Hawai`i County Council's unanimous recommendation to add language to the County Charter which will allow non-profit stewardship groups to be paid for some of the stewardship they do in partnership with the County on lands acquired with the 2% Land Fund. Let's face it, the people of Hawai`i have made it clear through three elections that they want more public land on the island and they want it cared for through all the generations. Is relying on volunteers the best way to maintain land held in perpetuity? No. Volunteers work hard but they burn out. They may not be as available in parts of the economic cycle. In rural areas there are less people financially able to donate their time. We need a better way to steward the land protected by the 2% Land Fund. The recommended language requires any compensation paid to individuals doing stewardship of the County's preserves, to be delineated in an approved stewardship grant proposal. This gives the County appropriate oversight of the process and allows the County to create more effective and durable stewardship plans. As you are well aware, the investment the people of Hawai`i County are making in conservation, is permanent and the properties acquired through the 2% Page 4 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 Land Fund will only increase in value over time. CA -18 provides flexibility and helps assure that there will be resources available for stewardship indefinitely. The proposed improvement to the language of CA -18 recognizes the reality that stewardship organizations simply do not have the kind of consistent resources needed to steward protected lands with volunteers over many decades, let alone centuries, without some of our work being paid for by the County. But the opposite is also true, the proposed language also gives the County flexibility when times are tough and staffing is tight, to use non-profit stewardship organizations to supplement and extend the work of paid staff. We all hear people say "why should the County Acquire more land, it doesn't take care of what it already has." The flexible approach contemplated by the proposed changes to CA -18, means that the County will have additional resources to bring to bear on stewarding its land. We will deliver our protected lands to future generations in better condition for their use and enjoyment. Thanks very much. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Uh, Ms. Hecht, you're next. If I could ask Mr. Warshauer please to come to the table. DEBBIE HECHT: Communication No. 35.54 in support. MS. HECHT: My name is Debbie Hecht. I have been the unpaid volunteer coordinator for the Save our Lands Citizen's Committee since 2005, advocating for the 2% Land Fund Program. If you decide to incorporate the language proposed by Maile... uh, Council Members David and Eoff, this could be the last time we will see each other. So I wanted to make sure to thank you for your service to the people of the County of Hawai `i. And a very big mahalo to Maile David and Karen Eoff for bringing this modification to CA -18 forward. Please ask them questions. They certainly know what they were doing. It was amazing at the County Council meeting, this amendment was approved unanimously. The Council listened to the people. I think it is amazing that anything is approved unanimously in this day and age, so it was impressive. I know you have heard many times that 63% of people approved of the land fund three times, but I am not sure that you know that 63% of people also approved the maintenance fund. And why is there a maintenance fund? Over and over again we heard from people "Why should we buy more land if we can't care for what we have?" That is a good question. The County told us that they couldn't care for these lands. Who are the boots on the ground that were caring for the lands, are the people that originally advocated for the purchases and have been doing the work over and over again since those purchases. Whole kuleana communities have developed around these lands. It's really an incredible byproduct that none of us ever anticipated, but it is really heartening to see the communities built around these lands. Page 5 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 As Brenda Ford and I watched and got excited about this work, we knew they needed help which is why we wrote the legislation for the Charter amendment on the maintenance fund. This sets aside one quarter percent of property taxes, roughly $700,000 each year to empower these groups, but over the years since 2013, only nine percent of all these monies have been received by the non -profits. That was not the intent when we wrote the legislation. That is why we are asking you to incorporate this language, so that they can pay the people so that there is no volunteer burnout. The maintenance fund has now almost reached its $3 million dollar cap, and the land fund has more than $22 million dollars in it. The work is not being done. Properties are not getting purchased, the matching funds are not getting obtained, and the maintenance fund grants are not getting made. The Charter Commission has done a lot to strengthen the maintenance fund and thank you for that. Please show your support for the County Council's proposed language and incorporate this language that says "an officer, board member, or employee of a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, or the organization that operates under the umbrella of a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, may receive compensation for duties that are delineated in the approved stewardship grant proposal." Thank you and I will be here for questions if anybody has any about intent or legislation. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Are there any questions? I actually do have a question. MS. HECHT: Okay. CHR. ADAMS: So when you prepared this... the language for this section of the Charter, back in the day. Why didn't we include the ability to... why didn't we include this portion? What was it that preventing including this, because it is... it is really a diametrical... MS. HECHT: No. That's actually a great question and I advocated for it. Brenda Ford said she didn't want to pay people and now all these years later, and after hearing from all the non -profits, every single one that has ah... received grant money that they do want to be able to pay people. We should have, we absolutely should have. That was a mistake and that is why we are coming to you to you know, change a mistake into a strength I think. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. Thank you. If I could ask Ms. Stanbro please to come up to the table. Mr. Warshauer. RICK WARSHAUER: Communication No. 35.54 in support. MR. WARSHAUER: Good morning Commissioners. My name is Rick Warshauer as you should know by now. I have been here a number of times and it is just a reflection of the amount of support the PONC (Public Access, Open Page 6 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 SHARON STANBORO: Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission) program has across the County, as you have heard repeatedly from us. The... I have come to support the adoption of the County Council's proposed alternative amendment to CA -18, Draft 2. The PONC program is unique. It is the people's option to recommend lands to be acquired for their use and for all the public's use in this County for recreation, just to maintain open space for preservation of resources and associated values. It is not necessarily different in some regards from Parks and Recs type of lands, but it adds to them and as a consequence it needs to have the ability to be maintained. This amendment will allow staff to be used to help cement the communication between the community and these lands. It is not in competition with P&R (Parks and Recreation). It is not subtracting anything from P&R lands, it is more for the people and as our population on this island has grown and I have seen it double in the time I have lived here, we need more lands. And as we saw a year ago, some of those lands get lost. We live on a volcanic island so we need to be able to add more lands quickly and to add lands that the people really care for, and when they care for it, they will be out there stewarding it. Unfortunately most of the funds in this program have gone to expensive studies and things like that. Very little has gone to directly steward the land and the wording that I am advocating for should help correct that. And as we have seen over the years, the strength and the very existence of the PONC program is anchored to its location in the County Charter and as we mature the program over time, we see the changes that we need. In these last few months we have come before you to recommend a number of changes. I am disappointed that not all of them will be on the ballot this year, but I guess there will be another opportunity in the future, but we need to make the program more effective, smoother, and better able to help supply the needs the public has. The County can't acquire lands on its own in the same path or hasn't been able to do so. The PONC provides an alternate path and it is a real important path, so I urge your adoption of this wording. Thank you. CHR. ADMAS: Thank you. Ms. Stanbro, and then if I could ask Deborah Ward please to come up to the table. Thanks. Communication No. 35.51 in support. MS. STANBORO: Uh again I am in support... oh sorry, I am in support... Sharon Stanboro, Sammie, also known as. I obviously support the 35.51 that is in front of you now. Can I just see hands of you... how many of you have seen... CHR. ADAMS: No. Page 7 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 MS. STANBORO: Okay. If you have driven around the south end of the island, and seen the spot at Whittington Pier called Honu'apo where the fish ponds are, everyone the tourists go nuts at the view of that. Everyone thinks that that is the most beautiful spot. That is actually what started the whole PONC thing going because that was going to be developed as a closed gate fancy house community by a fellow from San Francisco, and when the community actually got their act together and started working together down there, they asked the Trust for Public Land to come in and help them raise funds. It was not an easy job but it got done and what happened... that was before the 2%... what happened is a wealthy person in the area that had property down there actually put some money in trust into an account for the 501(c)(3) that they could draw from for toilets, to mow the place, to keep it clean, to fix the parking area, because Whittington park, it was part of Whittington that the state owned it, they didn't realize that Brewer had sold it off. So that is a beautiful park. The reason why it is so beautiful is because somebody put the money up to use the... basically the interest from... to do the work to pay for the mowers, to pay for the gas, this isn't just paying people. It is paying for what is needed to mow the lawns on these places and to keep it up... weed wackers, the gas, whatever. So you know if you haven't, take a good look at that piece of property. And people use it to picnic all the time, but that was done before so basically what we are trying to do here. Is have that money put there so that people can run their mowers, get the gas, and keep these places, you know, as nice as Honu'apo was. It was a lot of Hawaiian groups coming together that don't usually work together and then when they saw the power of what working together can do, without using the government, that and actually Harry threw in the last bit of money. He said "hey if the County is getting 300 acres, we can put in a little bit of money for it." And so Harry made that happen at the very end. You know, part of the $3 million dollars anyway. But that is kind of what we are doing. It was successful, it worked well, and we want that to continue happening with the properties. I have known Maile and Karen Eoff for a long time. We worked together and I just thank them for stepping up here at the end and you know, helping us put this through. Again, I want to remind you because we have gone through all of the things that... it's the lack of trust of government that causes problems like what we are seeing at Mauna Kea. It's a lack of trust of government that makes people say to me "what Sammie, you're still working on this, you're still fighting for this, why do you... don't you get tired of going to those meetings? Say something for me." You know, and so, we want to show them that our government does work for us and especially after we voted continuously. Kaua`i, Maui, and O`ahu are so envious of us and they tell me all the time when I go to board meetings over there "you guys are so lucky that you got in and did this early, and you protected lands. If only we could have done this on our islands earlier." So thank you very much for your time and your effort. I appreciate it. Thanks. Page 8 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Deborah. DEBORAH WARD: Communication Nos. 35.51 and 35.52, commenting. MS. WARD: Good morning. Thank you for hearing from all of us. Oh my goodness, time's out in the last minute, okay, come on... okay, so, I am here today representing Sierra Club because so many of the people who wanted to come today are not able to come for various family reasons and others. Sierra Club would like to commend you for all the work you have undertaken and for continuing to listen to our testimony as we offer what we consider solutions to the challenges that the County faces and we appreciate the attention given by the County Council to the specifics of the Charter amendments that you forwarded to them. And for their proposed wording on CA -18. As you know, our members are involved with a number of the non -profits that care for the PONC community... uh, County purchased lands, and they struggle daily with some of the difficulties and constraints of the current system, and some contemplate the possibility of taking on more responsibility for the land but are aware that without compensation, the board members can only commit so much time and committed energy. I was speaking with a group that had very long time ago, probably 10 years now, proposed to be involved with the road to the sea purchase, the Kahuku purchase that was made back maybe... well we started it about five years ago and they were discussing yesterday how much more they could take on, whether it would be something that they could do to manage the trash at the coastline and so forth, but a lot of the discussion focused around "okay, how much can we really commit to before we make this proposal and how much you know, what are the capacities of our members to do this work." And you know, it is an ongoing discussion. They are serious, they mean well, they want to do a good job, but they are concerned about how much they can really commit to, and so you know, this is sort of an ongoing discussion with several non-profit groups that I work with. We do ask that you consider taking the Council's amendment and incorporating it into CA -18. We also ask that you please consider accepting the amendment offered by the Council, let's see, to... well, they didn't offer the amendment, but we do ask that you name a specific position in CA -19, to be paid for with PONC funds within the Finance Department, to reduce the County cost that the County bares for the management and oversight of PONC lands and this would benefit the County by reducing the burden of the salary currently paid by... within the County budget, and we... but we do object to the vague wording that currently would pay for staff not specifically assigned to PONC work and that is our concern. So I would like to thank you very much for your time and for all the work you've done. Mahalo. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Are there any other testifiers in Kona? Page 9 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 MR. RUEDY: Hi Chair. Yes, do have Maile David and Karen Eoff that would like to testify. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. I would invite them to the table to indeed testify. KAREN EOFF: Communication No. 35.51 in support. MS. EOFF: Okay. Aloha, good morning Commissioners. CHR. ADAMS: It...I am so sorry. It is very light. I am not sure what we can do about the volume but it is hard to hear you. MS. EOFF: Okay, let me try to speak louder. I have a soft voice I guess. Is that better? MR. RUEDY: Now try. MS. EOFF: Is this any better? CHR. ADAMS: Yes. MS. EOFF: Well, good morning Commissioners, good morning Chair, and thank you for this opportunity today and thank you to all the testifiers who have articulated some of the issues here with this proposed alternate language. I personally really appreciate the work that you have done not just on this Public Access, Open Space, proposals, but all of your proposals. I understand what kind of work goes into bringing Charter language forward and so that... and this process, I do still trust in government. I am part of the government and I think this is a great example of the democratic process at work. We have this opportunity for taking another look at a proposal that I think was brought to you and instigated a lot of debate and it seemed like one of the... this approach that our Council has adopted, is looking at the idea of compensation but from a different approach. It would still not allow salaries which I think was part of the problematic language in the original ask for you to put something in this section. So we understand that paying salaries would create additional issues. So to avoid that, we took another look and decided that we would want to leave that in there so nobody would still be allowed a salary, but we do want to appreciate that there are specific skills and specialized areas that we would like to see compensation, so that these jobs can get done. Each of these parcels is so unique and different and they require a lot of creative efforts to propose and then carryout a project through the grant process. So in order to achieve the goals that I think we have heard today, and that we all know for maintaining, stewarding, and enhancing these parcels for whatever their unique purpose is, does require a lot of devotion and we can garner up lots of volunteers, but there still needs to be people in Page 10 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 charge and some of those people, in order to do a good job, carryout a project, will need some kind of compensation. I know we already contract certain work and it would be along those lines. So this amendment, and Debbie didn't really read the language in its entirety, but I know you have it in front of you, so I am not going to read the whole thing, but it basically would only allow for compensation to those who are engaged in the active maintenance, stewardship, and that those duties are specifically identified and officially approved in the detailed business plan that is part of the grant request. It would not constitute payment of a salary. So I am going to leave it there. I am going to stay here so if there is any questions, we can help answer. We would love to and Maile has something to offer too. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Maile. MAILE DAVID: Communication No. 35.51 in support. MS. DAVID: Yes. Aloha, good morning Commissioners and Chair. Thank you for this opportunity and I believe... I believe Ms. Eoff covered you know, the basic position that we both feel was very important in bringing this forward. And thank you all for your work, your hard work. We know what it entails because we have staffed the Commission before so thank you very much. I believe, or we believe that the proposal before you provides checks and balances in the... within the application process, and we have had a lengthy discussion with Finance Director, Deputy, and Corp Counsel (Corporation Counsel), so we have a greater understanding of the procedural issues that are involved with a proposal such as this. We understand that and we recognize it. So given that discussion, I think we believe that with this proposal, there are adequate checks and balances in that application process that Ms. Eoff refers to, to assure that the proposals in the management plan are in line with the law and authority, so I am very comfortable, I am very happy that the Commission saw fit to determine that the Department of Finance was the appropriate department in order to have oversight on this, and I thank you folks for seeing that. And... so, it is our hope that this Commission can also see the equitable purpose of our proposal and find in favor of inclusion and on that note, I think everyone else has basically expressed our feeling and sentiment and I believe the County Council has proposed unanimous approval. I would humbly ask for your consideration of that also, and with that being said, I really thank you for this opportunity. Mahalo. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you both. Are there any other testifiers in Kona? MS. DAVID: No. No Chair... Oh, I am sorry, taking your job Scott. No we don't. Thank you. Page 11 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Thanks. Do we have any testifiers here in Hilo? Okay. Moving on to... and thanks to all of the testifiers that we had today. APPROVAL OF The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, MINUTES: Approval of Minutes. CHR. ADAMS: Moving on to approval of minutes. I would entertain a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of June 7, 2019. Is there a second? Alright. It has been moved by Commissioner Saquing and seconded by Commissioner Springer, to approve the regular meeting minutes of June 7, 2019. Any discussion? All in favor please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Motion passes nine to zero, with Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter excused. Vote on Motion Commissioner Saquing moved to approve the minutes of To Approve Minutes: June 7, 2019. Seconded by Commissioner Saquing and carried (Approved) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter — 2 Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: I would entertain a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of June 21, 2019. It has been moved by... Commissioner Rice and seconded by Commissioner Todd. It is not even late in the day... to approve the regular meeting minutes of June 21, 2019. Is there any discussion? All in favor of the motion, please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? Motion passes nine to zero, with Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter excused. Page 12 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 Vote on Motion Commissioner Rice moved to approve the minutes of To Approve Minutes: June 21, 2019. Seconded by Commissioner Todd and carried (Approved) by the following voice vote: COMMUNI- CATIONS: Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter — 2 Excused: None. The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, Communications. CHR. ADAMS: Moving into Communications. We have the Communication No. 35.51 which is the memorandum from the County Clerk notifying the Commission of the Council's proposed alternative to CA -18, Draft 2 as provided via Resolution No. 216-19 and then there is... is there any discussion on that? We will be covering this in New Business. And then we also have Communication No. 35.52 which is an index of our discussion in our minutes regarding CA -18, Draft 2. Any discussion on that? Alright. NEW BUSINESS: The Chair directed the Commission to proceed to the next order of business, New Business. CHR. ADAMS: We have no Unfinished Business. Moving in to New Business. So Item No. 1 is Communication ... deals with Communication No. 35.54 where the County Council has proposed an alternative amendment to CA -18, Draft 2, submitted via Resolution No. 216-19 which proposes to revise CA -18, Draft 2 to provide that an officer, board member, or employee of a non-profit stewardship organization may receive compensation from stewardship maintenance grant funding for labor, educational workshops, or maintenance work, if those activities are approved as a part of the stewardship grant proposal. I would entertain a motion to accept this alternative which would amend the current CA -18 amendment proposal. It has been moved by Commissioner Rice. Is there a second? And seconded by Commissioner Todd. Page 13 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 So as we get into discussion, and I will start with you Commissioner Rice, I would note for the record, that this is an up and down vote. That there are no amendments available to this by statute and so just so we understand what we are doing here. Okay. Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: As has been discussed at great length, this seems to be something that the people of this island want and they want very much. Obviously the County Council, by having a unanimous vote, on this amendment has signified their belief that their constituents which encompassed the voting public of the entire island, are in favor of this, and I obviously am also in favor of it for the many reasons that we have been given by the stewardship groups, including the burnout factor, the ability to do a better job as stewardship groups, also the controls that are in this amendment which encompass an approval by the PONC commission and oversight and approval by the Department of Finance and continual monitoring by the Department of Finance and PONC through various reporting mechanisms. So I think that this would facilitate greatly the improvements of these preservation areas and allow for ongoing continual maintenance rather than sporadic maintenance which happens now because you have volunteers that show up one day and don't the next. So I am very much in favor of it and I hope that the other Commissioners will consider it favorably. CHR. ADAMS: Thank you. Is there any other discussion? I have a question for counsel. And I believe the question will require us to have a discussion about it in executive session. So I would entertain a motion to enter into executive session at this moment. Alright. Moved by Commissioner Bergin, seconded by Commissioner Todd. MS. RICE: With the Council? CHR. ADAMS: I am sorry? MS. RICE: Are the Council members included in the executive session? CHR. ADAMS: It is the Commissioners. MR. HENRICKS: He means legal counsel not Council. MS. RICE: Oh, oh. Sorry. MR. YOSHIMOTO: So for the record... CHR. ADAMS: All in favor of entering executive session please signify... Page 14 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 Vote to Move into Executive Session: (Approved) MR. YOSHIMOTO: Oh... Mr. Chairman, yeah, if you can state why because I think the record would be... MR. HENRICKS: Yeah, yeah, it is important. It is a requirement. CHR. ADAMS: It is. The purpose for entering executive session is to... pursuant to Section 925A4 of HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) to consult with our attorney on questions and issues pertaining to our powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities associated especially with the matter before us. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion passes nine zero, with Commissioners Galimba and Zelko- Schlueter excused. We will take a short recess. Commissioner Bergin moved to entering executive session. Seconded by Commissioner Todd and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter — 2 Excused: None. RECESS: At 11:48 a.m., the Chair called for a recess to go into Executive Session. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 12:37 p.m. CHR. ADAMS: So just to bring you back, we have a motion on the table to approve the alternative as presented by the Council in the Resolution 216-19. Is there any other discussion related to this motion? Well then I would... then let's vote by roll call please. Mr. Clerk. MR. HENRICKS: On the motion to accept the alternative amendment proposed by Resolution 216-19 Mr. Bergin (aye), Ms. Galimba, Mr. Hamano (aye), Mr. Hopkins (aye), Ms. Leithead-Todd (aye), Ms. Rice (aye), Mr. Roehrig (aye), Ms. Saquing (aye), Ms. Springer (aye), Ms. Zelko-Schlueter, Chair Adams (aye). Chair Adams you have nine votes in favor. CHR. ADAMS: The alternative, the motion to install the alternative into Charter Amendment 18 is passed unanimously with Commissioners Galimba and Zelko- Schlueter excused. Page 15 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 Vote on Motion The motion to accept Comm. No. 35.54, the alternative amendment proposed by To Accept Resolution No. 216-19 was carried by the following roll call vote: Comm. No. 35.54 (Approved): Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Chair Adams — 9 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter — 2 Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: Moving on to Item No. 2, Communications No. 53, Formation of an ad hoc committee to draft charter amendment proposal summaries and ballot questions, propose consolidation of charter amendment proposals, and propose renumbering of charter amendment proposals for sequential ordering. So in the... I would entertain a motion to form this... go ahead Mr... MR. HENRICKS: I was wondering about that. I can't recall... we had two ad hoc committees thus far and I can't recall if we did it via motion or just by announcement and I am sorry I wasn't prepared to answer that. You can do it either way. We don't have to do it the way we have done it before. I would note that the Council allows the Chair of the Committee or the Council to establish the committee, form the membership, and do the required... you know, defining the scope of investigation which you essentially just did by reading it in, so I think it is at your call how you want to take care of that. There's nothing in our rules that say how to do it. CHR. ADAMS: So then... I appreciate that. Thank you. So Commissioners understand, we will be forming an ad hoc committee. I think the one thing we do want to do, is we do want to identify who the members of the committee would be. MR. HENRICKS: A hundred percent. CHR. ADAMS: So, I will install myself as the Chair of said ad hoc committee, and then I have been approached by Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter, I believe Commissioner Saquing. Is there anyone else that would like to serve on this particular ad hoc committee? MS. RICE: Could... Mr. Chairman, could you elaborate a little bit about... CHR. ADAMS: This is about, this is about the ballot language. So in other words we have a responsibility by statute, maybe even in the Charter, where we have to develop the language. So we take the proposals... the proposals are the Page 16 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 proposals, those don't get changed. What's in here is what's in here. They will be voted on by the voters but the language that goes on to the ballot is not this language. So we need to develop language that is...explicates this information and that would be what the voters see and what the voters would vote aye or naye on. MS. RICE: So do they...they don't see the actual amendment? CHR. ADAMS: They'll have... we will have the opportunity to provide that information to them but the actual... correct me if I am wrong... as a matter of fact why don't you go ahead. MR. HENRICKS: It's time to talk about this. MS. RICE: Right. We did before, but I just need clarification. MR. HENRICKS: No problem. It's been a while hasn't it. There will be voter education and there's a requirement by law to print the full text of the amendments in publications and newspapers and what not, and we are going to do a very strident campaign to do so. But as Chair Adams has pointed out, what will be on the ballot will be the questions that will be formed, or excuse me, the questions that this Commission will approved, and what we are undertaking right now is to make a subset of this Commission to do that work and bring those proposed ballot questions back to the Commission for further review, perhaps modification, and then approval. And then this body then essentially decides how the ballot will read. MS. RICE: Got you. MR. HENRICKS: And by and large you know, that will be what the people will see. "Do you want the Charter to be changed this way, yes or no." MS. RICE: So it's a yes or no... on the ballot? MR. HENRICKS: Yes or no. Yes or no. CHR. ADAMS: On the ballot it's a yes or no. MS. RICE: The um.. prior we had a submittal which we all voted on, on the various amendments. And you... somebody had... I think you had done... MR. HENRICKS: Summary. MS. RICE: Done a little summary, yeah. Will that be similar? No. Page 17 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 MR. HENRICKS: No, the summary... again, a great head start for our voter education, when we are going out. You know, full text but also a summary. That goes first, full text goes next, sometimes regulatory language can be very thick for people, so the summary is there to hopefully accurately convey you know, in plain, simple language regardless of education, what the Charter Commission is asking the population to vote on. But that won't be on the ballot either. It will just be essentially a question. There is potential for the question to include a little bit of material that could provide a little bit of background, but by and large it's got to be succinct, it's got to end in a question mark obviously, and would have to be easily answered by a simple yes or no. MS. RICE: Okay. I understand. Thank you. MR. HENRICKS: This is a critical piece of work right now. CHR. ADAMS: And so, just so we understand, we currently have if I am not mistaken, 21 Charter Amendment Proposals. That does not mean that the ad hoc committee would bring back to the Commission 21 ballot measures. The idea would be are there areas where these can be consolidated. So that would reduce the number of ballot language, or potential ballots. Ballot questions. MR. HENRICKS: And I would say that that would be in the best interest of everyone to do so. There is again we talked about, ballot fatigue and you know, whatever can be properly consolidated where the Commission agrees that we can take maybe different proposals that can be brought under one question and you all agree that that's reasonable and you know a fair put to the electorate... I would... I think that's a good idea. MS. RICE: Okay. I've got it. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Hopkins. MR. HOPKINS: If there is consolidation, will the public have a chance to have a comment on if those things are consolidated? MR. HENRICKS: As a part of these meetings. I mean the consolidations must be approved by the Commission in an open meeting. Yeah. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Todd. MS. TODD: Just a question on timeline. At what point in order to do your education, do you have to have a finalized version and at what point does it have to go to Elections so that they can prepare the ballots? And the State Legislature just moved us toward voting by mail, so would the Charter amendments be voted on by mail? Page 18 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 MR. HENRICKS: I am going to ask you to stop asking questions because I am going to forget your first two. MS. TODD: I am sorry. MR HENRICKS: If you can remember them, I will be happy to try to answer them all. Your first question was... you know, that's a great question. I don't have it in front of me. I know that like the ballot language itself has to... I think it is... I believe it is 75 days, I believe that's August 23 before the general election. Somewhere around there and that is a firm date. There are also firm dates by which we must publish the full text with summaries in newspapers. I anticipate we will beat those dates and maybe do it more than once. We are going to provide an ample budget for voter education. We are not going to go bare minimum on that. As far as voting by mail... and so what will happen is because of Act 136, which we are you know, now a vote by mail state, everyone who is a registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail which will include all of the questions, Charter, Constitution, whatever they may be, including all of the contests. I anticipate providing some form of... a one page or something that would direct people for more information on the Charter amendments. Maybe even if we are able to get the summaries into a succinct... but realizing though that we are talking about 100,000 some odd ballots, so we have to be cognizant of how much paper we are putting in the mail and what that may add to our costs. But I certainly don't want to... I would like to at this point in time put something in with each ballot that provides a little extra information for people to reach out, and at least a website, something of that nature where people can find the full text, can find the summaries, can find the educational materials that we worked hard to produce. CHR. ADAMS: As far as timing goes, we are in the area of very... you see my hand. Yeah, we are dancing around. So the deal... I think the idea is the ad hoc committee would do its work over the winter time period. We would probably pull the Commission back together in the January -February time period. It gives us plenty of time to have the conversations that we would need to have and approve the language that would then allow us the education time as well as... now everything that we will be doing with the ad hoc would be to work with the legislative branch in the Clerk's office anyway. Even though we are very bright people, they do this for a living. And so you know, well you are all very bright people. So the idea would be to have that expertise as part of what the ad hoc committee is doing as well and then bring the ballot questions back to the Commission hopefully as a final. But of course they could always be reviewed by the entire Commission at that point. And as we pointed out, this will be an open meeting, a regular meeting and so it would be subject to Sunshine Law provisions, noticed, testimony, all that kind of stuff. So hopefully that answers a little bit about that. Page 19 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 MR. HENRICKS: Yes and to that end, just very briefly, you know, when you talk about education, it has to be timely. The vote is going to be in the early part of November. So, I mean we could expedite, push, get something out there early, but would that really be in anybody's best interest to get that kind of information in February, March, April? I'm skeptical. I think it would be better to be closer, but not too... you know... too close. CHR. ADAMS: That's right. So I am glad you brought up, Commissioner Todd brought up the fact that we will have this vote by mail system. Which means that we will need to have anything that we have out by... prior to the end of November. It will need to be out around the time that the ballots are being mailed so. Right. Okay, so right now I have three members that I have identified as being on that. Is there anyone from...not from Hilo who is interested in serving on that? MS. RICE: The problem is transportation, coming in and out... CHR. ADAMS: Well we are only meeting every other day, so you should be able to manage. MS. RICE: Yeah, right. Can we Skype? MR. HENRICKS: So Chair had anticipated working independently as well, and then we could also of course, you could go to there, in the... "To there"... that's not good for the minutes. You could go to the Kona Council Chambers and we could hook up as we are now and we could utilize this room and those two points as...yeah. MS. RICE: Oh okay, if that would be okay. Yeah, so I just didn't have to... okay, so I will sign up from Kona, be the... CHR. ADAMS: That's great. Great so then the members of the ad hoc would be the Chair, the Vice -Chair, Commissioner Zelko-Schlueter, Commissioner Saquing, Commissioner Springer, and Commissioner Rice. And we saved the best for last of course. Okay, so moving on to Item No. 3, unless there is anything else having to do with that item? Moving on to Item No. 3, Communication No. 54, which proposes an amendment to the Commission's Rules of Procedure to grant the Chair of the Commission, for the duration of this Commission's term, the authority to schedule regular meetings at the discretion of the Chair of the Commission. I so move. I don't know that I am allowed to do that. Okay. It has been seconded by Commissioner Todd. The motion would be to... as stated in the Communication, to add the phrase to Rule Number 1 (A), currently it reads Page 20 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 "regular meetings unless specified, regular meetings will be held on the second Friday of each month at 1:30 p.m." The addition would be "For the period of September, 2019 through November, 2020, regular meetings would be held at the Call of the Chair of the Commission with notice of each meeting filed in accordance with HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) 92-7." MS. RICE: Quickly discuss that. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: So, if you set a date and half of us can't show up, how will we deal with that? CHR. ADAMS: So I am obviously not going to set a date where only half of us could show up. MS. RICE: Well right, but how do we know... are you going to... MR. HENRICKS: We can... We'll coordinate. So, Chair Adams along with us will probably find like "this is a time where we need to get back together again and then..." MS. RICE: Can you just send an email? MR. HENRICKS: Absolutely. CHR. ADAMS: We will be able to operate... MR. HENRICKS: Through the coordination... CHR. ADAMS: Through the coordination. Through the staff. MS. RICE: Okay. That's fine. That's all. CHR. ADAMS: Is there any other discussion? I would encourage you to vote aye on this. We will take a voice vote. All in favor of the motion please signify by saying "aye" (aye), any opposed? MR. ROEHRIG: Naye. CHR. ADAMS: The motion passes 8-1 with Commissioners Zelko-Schlueter and Galimba excused, and Commissioner Roehrig voting "naye". Page 21 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 Vote on Motion To Amend the Rules of Procedures Per Comm. No. 54 (Approved): The motion to amend the Rules of Procedures per Comm. No. 54 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Noes: Absent: Excused: Commissioners Bergin, Hamano, Hopkins, Rice, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Chair Adams — 8 Commissioner Roehrig —1 Commissioners Galimba and Zelko-Schlueter — 2 None. CHR. ADAMS: Moving on to... We have no reports. Referrals for Executive Session, we will get back to that in one moment without objection. Agenda Items for Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting, the next regularly scheduled meeting based on our just vote will be at the Call of the Chair, and then at that meeting we would be considering the report from the ad hoc committee having to do with the ballot questions. Announcements, this currently says that the next meeting is Friday, September 13th. That is not the next meeting. Right? So this idea where we have meetings on the second Friday of the month, don't worry about that. We will get back in touch with you and I would anticipate not meeting again as a Commission in a regular meeting until the first part of 2020. We will let the ad hoc committee do its work. Okay. Before we adjourn, we do have one item associated for Executive Session, and so I would entertain a motion to enter into Executive Session to discuss and review executive session minutes of June 7, 2019. MR. HENRICKS: Chair Adams, I am so sorry. CHR. ADAMS: Okay. MR. HENRICKS: You know what we did last time was... we took a recess... CHR. ADAMS: We did. MR. HENRICKS: To allow the Commission to review the minutes and then came back and asked the Commission if there was a need to go into executive session. If not... there was a vote. And then what that did was... CHR. ADAMS: Allowed us not to have to say we were in executive session. MR. HENRICKS: And then have more minutes for that potentially. Page 22 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 CHR. ADAMS: Except we already had executive session. MR. HENRICKS: That time we did. CHR. ADAMS: And we did this time too. MR. HENRICKS: True. But still an effective... CHR. ADAMS: It is. So assuming we are okay with that particular procedure, we will take a short recess at which time you will have an opportunity to review anything that happens to be placed in front of you. And then we will come back together for a vote. RECESS: At 12:52 p.m., the Chair called for a recess to go into Executive Session. RECONVENE: The meeting reconvened at 12:59 p.m. CHR. ADAMS: Calling us back into open session from our recess. I would entertain a motion to approve the executive session minutes of June 7, 2019. Is there a second? It has been moved by Commissioner Hamano and seconded by Commissioner Roehrig. Is there any discussion? Well we can't. Yeah. Does anyone have anything to say about the minutes? All in favor of the motion please signify by saying "aye" (aye). Any opposed? Alright thank you. The minutes, the executive session minutes of June 7, 2019 are approved 9-0, 8-0, with Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, and Zelko-Schlueter excused. Vote on Motion To Approve Executive Session Minutes: (Approved) Commissioner Hamano moved to approve the Executive Session minutes of June 7, 2019. Seconded by Commissioner Roehrig and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Hamano, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Chair Adams — 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, and Zelko-Schlueter — 3 Excused: None. CHR. ADAMS: At this time, I just wanted to make a couple of brief comments. Folks have come up to me and said "so, you must be done with the Charter Commission." And the answer is, we are done with the first phase of the Charter Commission, right? But we still have the responsibility to develop the ballot Page 23 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 questions that will be seen by the voters, and then additionally, we have the responsibility to educate the voters on the... the items that are designed... that we have voted on and approved to go forward to them to amend the County Charter. So those are... that is a different phase of our responsibility but it is...continued... it is still a part of our responsibility. I would just like to say that I am very grateful to all of you for the work that you have done thus far. And I have had the opportunity to say this to various folks. You know, the ones that know me and know that I am on this Commission. And you know, we talk a little bit about what's been happening, what's been going on, and I really have the opportunity to say the staff's been great, the... and the Commissioners have taken their jobs seriously, and have held their own counsel, their own mind, and provided that as a part of the deliberations. And so, I personally appreciate you all doing that, and I think that the product as a result is the better for it and I am proud to be able to take what we have developed and be able to tell our voters you should vote for this because this will make the Charter a better Charter. Which will be part of what our responsibility is to do in the next phase. Not seeing any other lights on, I would wish... MS. RICE: You know I have to say something. CHR. ADAMS: Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I personally, since we will be taking a somewhat absent... a hiatus here for a little while. CHR. ADAMS: Every other day we are meeting. MS. RICE: Oh well except our yes... right... I want to thank Chairman Adams because doing this job is not easy and I think the public atmosphere has been very dignified, and yet everyone has had an opportunity to speak his or her mind and express their concerns or lack thereof on the various issues in front of us. I think it has been, for me personally, a very nice experience, and I think Chairman Adams gets a great deal of credit for that from me, and from the public, and our other Commissioners. Thank you Sir. CHR. ADAMS: Well thank you all, whether it is deserved or not. Alright. So at this moment I would entertain a motion to adjourn. MS. RICE: So moved. MS.SAQUING: Second. CHR. ADAMS: Alright, It has been moved and seconded. All in favor? (aye). Motion passes unanimously 8-0 with Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, and Zelko-Schlueter excused. Alright. I hope everybody has a... if I don't see you Page 24 Hawai`i County Charter Commission -14 August 8, 2019 here, there, or other places... actually Shannon will. 1 won't be doing the emailing directly to you. That wouldn't be good, but we will make sure that we work out through our electronic means, the right times for things. Vote on Motion There being no further business, at 1:03 p.m. Commissioner Rice moved that Adjourn the meeting be adjourned. Seconded by Commissioner Saquing and carried by (Approved): the following voice vote: Ayes: Commissioners Bergin, Hamano, Rice, Roehrig, Saquing, Springer, Todd, and Chair Adams — 8 Noes: None. Absent: Commissioners Galimba, Hopkins, and Zelko-Schlueter 3 Excused: None. Commission Approval: July 10, 2020 4/ /Ai/LA! ass ShipmafAdams, hair 0 Hawai`i County Charter Commission Page 25